Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Two Bathrooms

My family of five had one small bathroom. Well, "small" doesn't really do our bathroom justice. It was tiny. Itsy bitsy. Teeny weeny. I have closets bigger than that bathroom.

I remember many mornings waiting on my dad to finish his morning "business" while I paced in the living room. My brother had it easy. We lived in the country, and he could relieve himself on our rose bushes.

Our closet-sized bathroom had a microscopic closet. The closet was so small that my mom developed a new way of folding towels to get them to stack in there. To this day, I still fold my towels that way. They are compact, tight, and you can stack of lot of towels!

It's a grave injustice for a family to have only one bathroom for so many reasons. And for so many reasons, I'm so glad our curent home has two bathrooms.

Reason One: Defying all logic, it never fails that Spark has to use the facilities at the same time that someone else does. Buzz goes into bathroom. About 15 seconds pass. Then, Spark whines, "Mommy, I have to go poopy." To avoid a possibly nasty scenario or law-breaking deposit, I lead him to the grand place known as the "other bathroom."

Reason Two why I am so glad we have two bathrooms: an extra tub for cleaning up messes. If you're a parent or you've ever worked with young kids, you know the complete terror of having one poop in the tub. Flower, our almost one-year old has taken quite nicely to pooping in the tub. She's at the messy age where she requires at least one bath a day, and she's also at the age where most of those baths result in a pile of steaming turds in the water. It's even worse when the kids are sharing the tub.

Take two nights ago, for instance. Buzz is giving the kids a bath. We're on high alert with Flower, but she was having such a good time splashing with Spark in the tub that we let the bath go on a little too long. About two seconds before Buzz lifted her out of the tub, she squatted. And, well, that's the end of the toy bath. But, we quickly composed ourselves, taking the kids to the "other bathroom" for a quick hose down in the tub. How did we clean the poop out of the tub? Well, that's another story.

Reason Three: I can junk up my bathroom without worrying about guests seeing the clutter. I consider myself a pretty low-maintenance gal when it comes to cosmetics, bath products, and hair styling. But, it's amazing how much stuff it takes to keep a low-maintenance profile. It takes a lot of chemicals to look natural these days, indeed! It's so nice to have space to let that stuff pile up where no one who comes to my home can see it. Unless of course, the bathroom is occupied and someone needs to go to the "other bathroom." I'll deal with that when it happens.

I wonder how my family survived all those years with just one bathroom. One day, I might live in a house with one bathroom, and I'm sure that will result in a lengthy talk with my mom about managing counter space and microscopic linen closets. But two work so well for me that I hate to even think of that possibility!